Photo 365 - Day 63 (Last Days of Summer Slack)

Day 63 (September 5th, 2010)
Title: Last Days of Summer Slack

We were in Santa Cruz for this Memorial Day weekend and it was a nice chance of pace from the "hustle and bustle" of the city.  The weather was perfect and so was the company.  We went and hung out a the beach for a bit, watched the boats and generally got some good End of The Summer slacking in! 


I got this particular photo with my 28-135 lens (f/14 at 1/400th).  I really liked the clear blue sky, all the boats (there are tons of them - just look at the horizon!), and the folks just relaxing.  There were also dolphins playing in the water, but I was unable to shoot them (they are fast and too small to get with this lens).  I thought about cropping the left side a bit, to remove that other group of people (as well as that one sailboat), but then I kind of isolated the main group as well as removing a nice anchor-point of the photo. 


Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 62 (Fog Bank)

Day 62 (September 4th, 2010)
Title: Fog Bank


To paraphrase the great Crocodile Dundee: 



That's not a fog bank
Now THAT'S a fog bank!

A few days ago, the heat in the Bay Area was really hot (at least for us - high 80's to mid 90's).  And, then the heat just went away and our lovely fog finally came back!  And it came back with a vengeance!  Within 20-30 minutes, it went from clear and toasty to nearly impossible to see more than a few hundred feet in-front of you because of the fog!  The temperature dropped 20-30 degrees (I know at our house, it went from 88 to 65) in an hour.  It was strange watching it, because it looked like it had a life of its own.  I remembered the story, The Fog, by Stephen King and suddenly thought "damn, all those monsters are really going to mess up highway 80!"  Still, it was fun to watch the city disappear! 

If you look closely, you can still see the electric tower in the top-left section and just to the left of it, a top of one of the skyscrapers! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 61 (Half Inch)

Day 61 (September 3rd, 2010)
Title: Half Inch

After I looked at this pictured, I envisioned the old TV show, Get Smart with Agent 86 (Don Adams) always saying: Missed it by *that* much!  I also enjoyed that it really shows precisely how "macro" my macro lens is.   I'm hoping to get some extension tubes for the lens soon, so that way I can get even closer! 

As for theme, I'm kind of continuing yesterday "tool" focus, with another "critical tool", the tape measure! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 60 (Hammer Claw)

Day 60 (September 2nd, 2010)
Title: Hammer Claw

First of all, I'm caught up again!  I'm back on track now!  Woo!

I recently read one of the random "weird news" stories on Yahoo, and it was about the "20 more important tools".  Most of them I agreed with (things like hammer, screwdrivers, wrench, clamps, etc), but they had on there miter saw.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy using a miter saw (compared to just a hand-saw), but I don't think its critical.  Why do I bring this up?  No reason really.  I didn't even take a picture of a saw. 

I did take some pictures of some other tools (more tomorrow), and I really enjoyed this one of the hammer (technically, the back of the hammer, known as the "claw").  I like taking pictures of things from different and/or interesting views.  I mean, how often do you think: "I wonder what the claw-end of a hammer REALLY looks like?"  I mean, I *hope* you don't ask questions like that, because you'd never get anything productive done with questions like that!  But don't worry, because that's why I'm here! 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 59 (Jhoira's Fate)

Day 59 (September 1st, 2010)
Title: Jhoira's Fate

This is another abstract photo using a Magic: The Gathering card.  I was thinking, in 1000 years, some random archeologist might dig up an old magic card and wonder: "What was this? What was it used for? How much could I sell this for on CosmicEbay?" 

As a second way of looking at it, at least for me, was in the context of the game itself.  An old artifact rusts and fades away after some random long-fought battle decades ago.  Nothing but some scrap and lots of dust.  No one will remember what part it played in an epic battle.  Perhaps, no one will even remember the epic battle at all.

Enjoy.

Photo 365 - Day 58 (Magic Abstract)

Day 58 (August 31st, 2010)
Title: Magic Abstract

This is my attempt at making a fun little abstract photo.  This is a Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game card (bonus points if you can tell me which one) that I altered for no reason whatsoever.  I just thought a floating, flaming head on a white card looked kind of neat.  I did alter the contract and vibrance of the photo to really get the flaming head to stand out, as well as subdue the background a bit.  By dropping the contrast down, I got the scratch lines to really show up a lot more than they do on the actual card, which is a nice touch in my opinion. 

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 57 (IKEA Fun)

Day 57 (August 30th, 2010)
Title: IKEA Fun

First of all, I appoligize for not posting this on the actual day it was supposed to be posted.  Comcast is having some drama in our building and as such our Internet has been off-and-on for the last few days.  Mostly off since Sunday night.  But, everything seems to be running again now, so I'm going to post all the missing photos!  Now on with the show!

I think I need to preface this photo with the following:  I love IKEA!  Really, I do.  (to somewhat paraphrase the Blue Brothers) "This store's got everything!"  From cheap couches, to desks, tables, cabinets, you name it, they have it!  Plus, you can't forget the "bonus" stuff!  Meatballs, free little pencils and tape measures, photo frames, spatulas, candles as far as the eye can see!  Its like a Toy's-R-Us for adults.  Actually, I believe that IKEA means "Lego's For Adults" in Swedish. 

When I build something from IKEA, I act just like I did when I was 12, opening a new box of Lego's.  First I take all the parts out and sort them, then verify the instructions that I am not missing anything, and finally give the instructions a once-over before starting!  Did I mention I love IKEA?...